Sev, You can stop oiling your hair now!
by Kinnu
Summary: The one-shot is about Snape wanting to have someone continue to love him, because he keeps losing people who come to care for him, like Lily and his mother. He keeps oiling his hair for Draco to keep loving him, since he is Draco's godfather. Snape POV and implied Dramione...Written for The Character from your House Challenge where I got Snape. Hurrah for Slytherins!


**Author's note: Enjoy! Hope you like it...**

_Shampoo._

_When I opened the gift wrapped carefully in silver, I was expecting anything but 'that'._

_The note said: You can stop oiling your hair now..._

When I held Draco as a baby in my arms, a few months old, as I was named his Godfather, he made a game out of holding onto my hair. He seemed to find great joy in sliding his hands through my hair until his hand slid off. The Malfoy smirk surfaced for the first time and I told myself to keep my hair oiled, at least until he grew older. Finally, I thought, there'll be a person 'alive' who might grow to love me as I love them. I would lose no chance in trying to secure that love, even if it meant I had to keep my hair greasy.

I whispered in his ear, "I'll love you. Forever."

And he whispered back, as well as a baby could, "Mm...Mm..."

When he was around 2 years old, we'd started playing tag. He'd catch his Father by his ponytail and his mother by her voluminous robes but never me. He saw catching me as a challenge and focused his efforts. I encouraged him and let him win, just once. He called me 'Slippery Sev' and put in more efforts into everything else he did, for he had started to believe anything could be achieved through sheer determination. I didn't want him to lose that spirit. We played more tag and my hair was left oily.

I caught him by his blond fringe during tag, lifted him high and told him "I'll love you. Forever."

And he babbled back, "Mm...Mm..."

When he was seven, he used to jump on the bed and try to oil my hair at the same time. Young that he was, he'd pour more of it on my face than on my hair. When his mom bugged him about putting oil in his hair, he used to rub his hair against mine and say, "See, mum. Sev's letting me borrow some." And he'd proceed to thank me by kissing me all over my face and say in between kisses, "Your hair is the awesome-est thing in the world." I continued oiling my hair.

I'd rub my nose with his and say, "I'll love you. Forever."

And he'd rub his nose against mine and say, "Mm...Mm..."

When he was almost nine, he told me my hair was like an umbrella. I was perplexed by his reasoning until he clarified it himself. His logic was that my hair would have the water run over it and off and nothing would wet me. He even told me I didn't ever have to use a drying charm and suggested I grow my hair longer so he'd fit under the umbrella too. And he smiled. A genuine one. He started smiling wider and wider until... He was rolling on the floor laughing. So was I. I decide to keep oiling my hair. At least his logic would try to keep up with the ridiculous stories he weaves. Anyway, that's how Lucius found us when he came to check who was guffawing so loudly. I quickly look my leave before I received a tongue-lashing too.

Before I left, I bent down and said in Draco's ear, "I'll love you. Forever."

And engrossed that he was in trying to figure how to escape his scolding, eyes on his enraged father, he just said, "Mm...Mm..." _Or so I told myself._

When he got his Hogwarts letter, he admitted he was nervous but not afraid. He said, "Sev, I'll feel so much better knowing you're there too. If I can spot your greasy hair above the crowd, I'll know you'll be the first person to reach me if I get into any trouble". I wanted him to continue feeling secure. Maybe I took the keeping him out of trouble part to extreme levels, but it was done out of love. Love for my Godson. Again, I didn't change and the oil stayed.

Every time I got him out of trouble, I'd pull him along by his ear, and back in my chambers, after a thorough washing-down, I'd hold him close and say, "I'll love you forever."

And he'd put his nose high up in the air and murmur, "Mm...Mm..."

When he was in his 2nd year, he'd spend most of his time in the Potions dungeon with me. Once, he found a potion that required 7 drops of dragon oil. He ran to my chambers, brought the bottle of oil I used and showed me that I partly use dragon oil on my head. Then he pulled me by my hand and pressed the oil from my hair into the cauldron. He made a perfect potion and he had so much fun that day that he came everyday and made a new potion. He became so advanced in the art of Potion making that he was the only one who managed to beat Hermione Granger in a subject, at Potions too... No matter what the others believed, his skill in Potions was remarkable. Even Granger admitted to it, albeit reluctantly, when I paired them in class for an assignment. My oil continued, for the sake of his proficiency in Potions.

Every time he perfected a Potion, he'd smirk at me as gave me the vial.

I was amazed every time. I'd ruffle his hair and say, "I'll love you. Forever."

And Draco, distracted by his lost hairstyle that must have taken him an hour to perfect, would say, "Mm...Mm...," before trying to bring his hair back to 'presentable'.

In his 3rd year, when the oaf Hagrid's hippogriff Buckbeak attacked him when he didn't follow protocol, he wheezed out in the Hospital Wing with too much exaggeration and overaction, "Sev, I don't know if I'll live any longer. If I don't, please take care of Mum and Dad. They'll be overwrought with grief so I want you to console them as best as you can." He added a cough for extra effect and continued, "Please let me see your hair once. I want that shade of black to be the black I'll see forever after." As he started groaning continuously, I rolled my eyes at his behaviour but the thought of losing him had already entered my mind and I couldn't get it out. He might have joked but I had taken him seriously. I oiled my hair in the hope that at least since his last wish was to see me before anything ever happened to him, which was more than anyone ever hoped, Merlin-forbid, I'd keep my hair greasy for as long as I could.

As I sat holding his hand in the Hospital Wing that night, I told him, with tears in my eyes that I hastily wiped away with my sleeve, "I'll love you. Forever."

He turned towards me in his sleep and I think I heard him make a sound that sounded like 'Mm...Mm...'

In his 4th year, when the fake Moody turned him into a ferret and bounced him up and down, I admit I had a good laugh over it. When he sneaked into my chambers that night holding an ice pack to his bruised cheek, he ranted until he tired and nodded off to sleep in the armchair he was sitting in holding the Butterbeer so tightly that most of it ended up on his shirt anyway. The next day, I told him it was okay to be wary and look over our shoulder every time. We need to trust our own, I told him, or they'll lose their trust in you. I knew he was just itching to ask me the meaning behind that statement. I don't know why I didn't stop oiling my hair then. I know I just didn't.

As I ushered him out of my room that morning, I told him, "I'll love you. Forever"

And he was thinking so deeply about asking me to clarify my statement that I only heard 'Mm...Mm...' before I shut the door.

He was elected to the Inquisitorial Squad in his 5th year along with being a prefect. I was so proud of him, even if he was elected for the wrong reasons. When I was called to Umbridge's office to verify Potter's claim, I told him using Legimency to release all of Potter's friends without suspicion. He did as I asked, for I had asked him to trust me. I was leaving Dumbeldore's office to apparate to The Ministry as per Dumbeldore's orders when Draco cornered me near the gate. "What's going on, Sev?" he asked me, confused. I shook my head sadly at him and almost apparated when he tried to hold on to my hair to come with me. But as it had happened many times before, his hand slipped and my last view of him was of him lying on the ground, looking thoroughly disgruntled as I apparated. I'd managed to save him from all the fighting because of my hair. Merlin knew when it would come in useful again. So I oiled it again.

But before I apparated, I managed to say, "No matter what. I'll love you forever."

And for the next few weeks, all he said to me, without even glancing at me, was, "Mm...Mm..."

Ruddy impossible task! What kind of man gives a child, barely 17, in his 6th year, a task to kill the greatest wizard of all time? Thank goodness the old fool was already dying. I wouldn't have been able to stomach his 'murder' otherwise. He was one of the 'few' who didn't love me for who I am, but respected and tolerated me enough to give me a second chance. So I made the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa but Draco rejected my help. He told me he didn't want me to suffer the Dark Lord displeasure. I sneered at him and said walked away but helped him subtly anyway. He was becoming gaunt and skinnier day-by-day. I was elated that he thought about my well-being but his safety and health took precedence. So I killed Dumbledore myself, as per his orders. My throat clogged up as I saw Dumbledore fall out of the tower. Stupid Potter! Of course he wasn't in on Dumbledore's plans. He thinks I killed Dumbledore, I thought as I deflected Potter's pitiful spells, all the while shielding him from Bellatrix's spells. I sighed and pulled Draco along into the Forbidden Forest, where an activated port-key was waiting. That night, as Draco sobbed into my shoulder at the unfairness of the deed he'd done, I told him that life was not a bed of roses, nor was it just black and white. It had thorns and shades of grey. And I left him to figure it out himself. As I tucked him into bed after making the elf scurry away with an angry tone, I smirked and informed him that he'd washed my hair with his tears. Sleepy now, he urged me to oil my hair immediately because he liked it that way. Who was I to deny such a heart-felt request?

I pulled his covers up to his chin, ran a hand over his blond hair and told him, "I'll love you. Forever."

Asleep that he was by now, he managed to mumble, "Mm...Mm..."

In his 7th year with many imminent threats on the horizon, he figured it out and asked me if he could help as I did. "Who better than the Malfoy heir?" he argued. I was sceptical since The Order of the Phoenix had just accepted me back after I showed Potter a few of my memories and the rest believed him blindly. So much trust, I thought, and none for me. I warned Draco that they might not accept him and will definitely not trust him. He asked me, "Do they trust you, Sev? Even after so many years of loyalty?" That trumped me. When I took him to the Order and said my piece, the protests ranged from 'No way' to 'We'll lock them both in the dungeons because they're a liability'. Surprisingly, Granger stood up for us and Potter seemed to value her opinion highly. She became our contact and we, her contacts. When we went to thank her, it was awkward until Draco grumbled about my greasy hair getting the wallpaper dirty. Not that there was much of the wallpaper left anyway. When Granger giggled, we looked up suddenly with funny expressions on our faces, or so she told me a while later. Draco and Gra—Hermione, she insisted we call her that, bonded over my hair as I sat pig-faced before they engaged me in a discussion about Potions.

When the trio left, I found a package waiting for me and Draco. It had two coins which said, 'Help will always be found to those who ask for it. P.S. Oil always helps.' And we knew how to contact her though it took me days to stop Draco from extolling her virtues when we figured out the specific ingredients in the oil I use help us read messages. My dream of oil-free was long gone.

We helped the Trio with the Horcruxes and when they came to Hogwarts, Hermione asked Draco to search for Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, who immediately went to the Room of requirement and started searching for it on following my train of thought and taking my advice. Potter, on hearing that Draco found it, concocted a very big explanation for the reasoning, passed it off as his own idea and managed to almost destroy Draco along with the diadem.

After Harry defeated The Dar-Voldemort, I and Hermione sat on either side of Draco, convincing ourselves he was safe and sound.

When no-one was looking, since we had reputations to maintain, we indulged in a three-way hug. I now had two people care for me. I only said," I'll love you. Both of you. Forever."

So involved were they in the hug that I only heard, "Mm...Mm..."

A year later, they asked me to officiate at their wedding. Potter and Weasley objected before Hermione told them to respect her decisions. I saw the couple's overjoyed faces as they looked at each other during the wedding. During their vows, they swore on my greasy black hair that they would always be with each other, through life and death. That earned a few chuckles from the guests and my dream of no-more-oil evaporated like water in Fiendfyre. They didn't wait for me to say, "You may kiss the bride" before they got on with it.

When it was my turn to congratulate them, I told them, "I'll love you. Both of you. Forever."

They were so ecstatic about their wedding that they smiled like their face would burst t the seams if they smiled any wider and managed to say, "Mm...Mm..."

_NOW: Another note fell out of the package too. It read:_

" _**I took you so much for granted, Sev. You taught me so much in life and helped me believe in love. I'm sorry I never realised all the pain and grief I caused you. You are the most important person in my life, Sev. In both of our lives, mine and Hermione's. Actually, in all three of our lives. Young Scorpius Severus Malfoy will look up to you too. Just like I did. **_

_**Thank you Sev. Thank you so much.**_

_**-Draco, your only and 'favourite' godson, to-be-father of your to-be-favourite grandson"**_

_It is my birthday today and it is the best gift I have ever received. (The letter, not the shampoo!)_

_I close my eyes as tears threaten to fall. When I open my eyes, I see Draco in front of me. Hermione is standing behind him, with one hand on his shoulder and the other on her belly as she smiles radiantly._

_I manage to croak out 'Congratulations'._

_Draco then takes my hands in his, looks into my eyes and casts a Patronus along with Hermione. A dragon and otter circle me and they all say together, "We love you Sev. Forever."_

_I now have two people love me, one more to come and they are all here to stay._

_And all I can manage to say is-_

"_Mm...Mm..."_

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